The context in which medieval theologians discuss 'relation' is nearly always a trinitarian one. They have to solve an awkward problem: to explain how in God the persons are identical with the divine essence, yet different among themselves. In this paper I want to argue that Henry of Ghent's interest in the nature of the Trinity acted as an impetus towards the development of his theory of the nature of relations. In this context the accounts of Thomas Aquinas and Giles (...) of Rome will be considered as important for understand18 ing Henry's account. Henry's positive account of relations stems from Avicenna. For Henry, a relation is not an aliquid but has two modes of being, both as an accident and as a relative. Henry's attempt to think the nature of relation leads to him developing a relational ontology. (shrink)

In this contribution the. author defends the thesis that the rise of mystical movements replacing the traditional religions is a dubious phenomenon. Many people seem to think that the revival of mystical movements is an apt answer to the religious crisis we are living in. Even when they are not interested in commercial success but solely in going back to the historical roots of mysticism, those movements often fail to realize that traditional mysticism is deeply embedded in a religious tradition, (...) and cannot work or be effective when dissolved from this religious bedrock. To substantiate this thesis, the author analyzes the essence and function of Christian religion in thé Middle Ages, i.e., the attempt to learn to live with unfulfilled desires, as a kind of wisdom (sapientia), that saves us from the vanity (vanitas) of endless new desires, and from the pride (superbia), that testifies to itself in the frustration over an unfulfilled desire. Second he shows that the historical mystical movement is nothing but a prolongation and intensification of the movement set in motion by religion. Whereas in religion one still keeps one's desires, though unfulfilled, mysticism appears more radical in that it destroys the desires themselves, and consequently also the I. Anyhow, from all this is clear that mystical liberation cannot work outside religious liberation — in spite of what many people nowadays seem to think on the basis of a certain presentation of historical mysticism as anti-institutional and anti-clerical. (shrink)

This modest contribution has been occasioned by the publication of the Proceedings of an international colloquium held at the De Wulf-Mansion Centre of the Institute of Philosophy in commemoration of the seven-hundredth anniversary of the death of Henry of Ghent. This colloquium had a twofold purpose: «first to establish a status quaestionis of the different fields of research concerning Henry’s doctrines and the critical edition of his work and, second, to provide a forum for specialists to exchange ideas and insights (...) on specific problems. The publication of the Proceedings offers an assessment of our present knowledge and opens up possibilities for further research». It is only natural, then, that the present contribution takes over this twofold end. On the one hand it will attempt to give a survey of what has been achieved thus far in studying Henry’s thought. On the other hand it hopes to derive from this survey a picture of what has been left undone until now, in order to set out a few lines for future research. More in particular it will push forward one issue that has been stepmotherly dealt with: relation. (shrink)